World Battlefronts: From Madang to Kavieng

By land, by sea, by air the Allies in the Southwest Pacific closed on Rabaul:

New Britain. General MacArthur's men (Marine veterans of Guadalcanal) had won their objective on New Britain's western tip: the Japs' two Cape Gloucester air strips, 250 miles from Rabaul. With an accurate pre-invasion bombardment, with Sherman tanks, heavy artillery and pillbox-killing flamethrowers, they had overwhelmed the Jap defenses in four days and a few hours. Now they pressed into the jungle hinterland, where a Jap remnant had dragged artillery to shell the airfield. Enemy resistance was fanatic. At...

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